Just Eat hails growth of healthy dishes as sales leap

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The days of ordering calorific pizzas and curries swimming in puddles of cooking oil could become a thing of the past, as we become a nation of healthier eaters, opting for takeaway salads instead, according to the boss of Just Eat.

David Buttress, chief executive of the takeaway platform, revealed that one of the fastest growing cuisines for orders is the health food market.

He said: “Thai and sushi have been coming through in the last few years and have out-performed other categories.

“But genuine healthy cuisines are also up. Salads are growing fast and we can see that health is a real driver for the business.”

The news comes as revenues rose 58% to £247.6 million in 2015, although pretax profits fell to £34.6 million, from £57.4 million in 2014. This was due to a one-off payment two years ago.

Just Eat is Europe’s biggest online takeaway platform – with takeaways signing up to the service, giving a fee for each order to the company.

Buttress added: “We’ve still got more to do. Six out of ten takeaway orders in the UK are still done on the phone because we’re creatures of habit. But if we can get you to place just one order online, you never go back to the phone.”

Customers placing orders through its mobile phone app now accounts for 70% of all orders and the number of restaurants on the service jumped by 15,800 to 61,500, although Buttress said some had been kicked off for providing poor quality food, service, or charging more to Just Eat customers versus those who ordered directly with the takeaway.

Investors were pleased with the speed of growth – Just Eat is in 15 countries – and shares jumped 15.1p, or 3.9%, to 400.8p.